Biogen expands Ionis brain drug collab

Biogen will pay Ionis Pharmaceuticals $1 billion to expand the companies' brain drug collaboration for an additional ten years.

The transaction builds on the deal that produced Spinraza, a treatment for a deadly rare disease called spinal muscular atrophy, as well as two antisense drug candidates currently in clinical trials. The deal has the potential to advance up to seven more drug candidates to the clinic within the next two years, says Biogen.

The two companies plan to advance programs for a broad range of neurological diseases for which few treatment options exist today. Disease areas include dementia, neuromuscular diseases, movement disorders, ophthalmology, diseases of the inner ear, and neuropsychiatry. Biogen will have the first choice of neurology targets on which to exclusively collaborate with Ionis.

Several drugmakers are joining the growing group of protestors who are distancing themselves from the Fox News Channel shows featuring Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro after the hosts were accused of making bigoted statements.

A mix of feature articles and current new stories that are critical to staying up-to-date on the industry, delivered to your inbox. Choose from an assortment of different topics and frequencies. Subscribe Today.